Kristi Noem and support for small business

by philg

Kristi Noem, famous or notorious (depending on your perspective regarding governor-ordered masks and shutdown) for saying that people who didn’t want to get COVID-19 should stay home and not rely on the government, a bandana, or a 3-cent paper surgical mask to protect them from a respiratory virus, is being talked about as someone who might enter national politics.

A recent CATO analysis of the small business environment in the 50 states has Ms. Noem’s South Dakota at #2 for business freedom:

Note that New Jersey, which if it were its own country would have the world’s highest COVID-19 death rate (ranking), is almost dead last! Also, states that you might expect to be free, e.g., Montana, aren’t. It is interesting to look at correlations with how easy it is to make money via pregnancy and child support. Georgia, where the government wants you to set up a business, has a soft cap on child support profits (so does South Dakota). Connecticut, on the other hand, is the nation’s most difficult state in which to start a business, but is a paradise for alimony plaintiffs and also offers unlimited child support.

Readers: Now that the Republican Party draws its support primarily from those who operate small business (everyone else is on the government gravy train either through welfare at the low end and crony capitalism at the high end), is Kristi Noem a likely future presidential candidate?

Related:

  • states ranked by COVID-19-tagged death rate (unfortunately not adjusted for percentage of population over 65), in which we see #Science-following Maskachusetts right near the top and give-the-finger-to-the-virus South Dakota at around #10.

10 thoughts on “Kristi Noem and support for small business”

  2. Hi Philip, I know this isn’t related to the actual post, but I was wondering when the next chapter of Medical School 2020 will be published? I’ve been looking forward to it!
    Lance

  3. If “future” means future beyond next or next two election cycle(s) then I would love to see Kristy Noem as a President of the United States, given her other critical issues stances are as good as her stance on personal and economic liberty. She sure thinks and acts rationally and with courage.
    In itself small business freedom is indication of economy, nit general liberty. Nobody would argue that India has better economy then China or that China is more free then India. And nobody would argue that Montana is one of the most free state among United States states but that economy there is not one of the top economies in the United States. Of course, usually economic and personal freedoms correlate, just compare upstate of Ohio and New York, Ohio is so much more busy and productive and much more free then New York and much of New York upstate looks like forgotten land after mass exodus.

  4. I think the anti-shutdown governors (her and your future governor down in FL) will be the front runners in the next presidential election. And for good reason, they’ve shown true leadership in doing the right thing for their state under constant media criticism, when it took many months for experts to recognize that these brave governors were right all along (https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/medical/who-official-urges-world-leaders-to-stop-using-lockdowns-as-primary-virus-control-method/ar-BB19TBUo) (and of course ultra-Orthodox shutdown believers like Fauci still haven’t recognized it).

    The only thing that would stop them from a serious run in 2024 would be if Trump decides to run, and I wouldn’t dare hazard a guess on that.

  5. My guess is no, because unlike every other governor she didn’t act like a power-mad tyrant using COVID-19 as an excuse. Not being a power-mad tyrant automatically disqualifies her as President right there.

    However, it also disqualifies here in another way–the fact that she’s not is what she’s famous for, and it differentiates her from all those other Republican governors (like Abbott and DeSantis) who went all-in on the tyranny and have since changed their minds and are trying to pretend it never happened. Noem as a presidential candidate would draw attention to the misdeeds of all those other Republicans, who are unlikely to stand for it.

  6. I think it would be terrific if she ran. She seems to be able to walk in a lot of different worlds and wear a lot of hats well. She’s got brains and poise and she knows how to make a speech, and her policy choices are strong. I haven’t followed her closely from MA but I’ve talked to some folks in SD who think she’s fantastic, including a lot of bikers and MAGA people who were proud of her stance on the Sturgis rally last year, so her name recognition is nationwide. Even in Massachusetts I’ve met a couple of those guys & gals, wearing their “Sturgis 2020” t-shirts. I ask them every time about Kristi and they all give me the “thumbs up.” The 84th Sturgis rally is in less than three months.

    https://www.sturgismotorcyclerally.com/

    Let’s see what the buzz and pushback looks like then, along with the other externalities….

    It’s a big decision but I know she’d have strong grassroots support if she went for it. There are a lot worse choices we could have.

    • I don’t know whether this qualifies her to be President, but she does remind me of Sarah Connor in Terminator II. She could plausibly help “Terminate” the Harris Administration. I’ll work on the photoshop.

  8. Kristi Noem is very attractive, and speaks well. However she is ultimately a Chamber of Commerce Republican which would turn into a liability on the national stage.

    Her refusal to implement a mask mandate at the state level has been widely misunderstood. She adopted a ‘federalist’ principle, meaning she never objected to city/town mask mandates nor to corporate mask mandates. She simply resisted Karenism and tyranny at the state level. Overall mask usage was pretty high.

    The media’s focus on South Dakota was more about geographic, class, and racial bigotry on the part of coastal elites. Pick a white working class state that relatively few coastal denizens have visited, and smear them for not emulating Cuomo.

    One can draw a strong contrast between SD and FL, where Desantis affirmatively ordered cities to relax capacity restrictions, while Noem punted. That contrast showed up again when the NCAA came knocking demanding cis-men in women’s sports. Noem took the Chamber of Commerce position, while DeSantis acted affirmatively to protect women’s sports.

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